In the Real World

The Japanese Pavilion at the 14. Architecture Biennale offers a vital and varied presentation of the way in which the country has sought its own architectural interpretation of the modern.

After being the second world power at the end of the 1960s, Japan at the beginning of the 1970s entered into a deep recession linked to the cost of energy and manufacturing. For a new generation of young architects this became the opportunity to profoundly rethink the meaning of making architecture.

Some of them carried out genuine analysis in the field, documenting through maps and photographs the actual architecture of the cities. "Architectural Detective Agency" was a group of historians who in 1974 with the participation of a very young "detective" Teronobu Fujimori, meticulously recorded the traditional everyday elements of Japanese architecture.

In other cases, experimental designs that looked at the minimal space required for living and modes of development for complex communities in the cities provided opportunities for reflection and debate.

By looking inside itself, Japan managed to move forward once more, with greater awareness of what it had been and what modernity had asked it to become. A part of the exhibition called "A Century of Modern Architecture in Blueprint" offers the visitor a chance to purchase copies of design drawings of a refined selection of the most significant buildings built in Japan from the early 1900s up until the present. Starting with the Imperial Hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright, moving on to a very powerful Kenzo Tange in the 1970s and then on to today, highlighting the transformations that thinking, identity and architectural experimentation have all undergone over the years.

The Japanese Pavilion at this Biennale offers a vital and varied presentation of the way in which the country has sought its own architectural interpretation of the modern, highlighting how the observation of the real world, with the contribution of an energy crisis, can regenerate thoughts and ideas. A clear note of inspiration for the stagnant cultural situation in Italy.

Japan
In the real world
Commissioner: Kayoko Ota
Deputy commissioners: Keiko Tasaki, Manako Kawata, Yoko Oyamada
Curator: Norihito Nakatani
Deputy curators: Hiroo Yamagata, Keigo Kobayashi, Jin Motohashi
Location: Pavilion at Giardini

Untill 23 November 2014
14. Biennale di Architettura
Fundamentals
Giardini di Castello, Venice

In the Real World

The Japanese Pavilion at the 14. Architecture Biennale offers a vital and varied presentation of the way in which the country has sought its own architectural interpretation of the modern.

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